First off, I want to thank everyone on here for the vast amount of knowledge that is shared. I got a brewing kit (this one) as a gift and since then I have been reading and researching as much as I can on here.
Two-days ago I made my yeast starter. I didn't have any extra DME except for what was in the kit for the recipe I had bought, so I went to my LHBS and bought a pound of light DME for the starter. Everything with the starter went relatively well. I had white labs WLP001 which sprayed everywhere when I cracked it to pitch in the starter, but I managed to dump what I could in the flask and it seemed to end up working fine (admittedly I was a little freaked out about it but I came on here in researched and read several threads where the same thing happened to other people). I got a great head of krausen and 18 hours later (yesterday) I was starting my brew.
The recipe:
American Pale Ale 2
6 lbs Coopers Light DME
1 Lb Belgian Caravienne (19-27L)
7 AAU Nugget (Boil) (0.52oz @ 13.3%)
2 Oz. Chinook (Finish)
White Labs WLP001
(Steep Grains in bag in 6 gallons of water @ 155F for 20 minutes, remove bag (drain) then bring to boil, add Nugget hops and boil for an hour. After an hour add chinook and cool.)
So I had a couple beers before I started, and perhaps my judgement was a little off but I had the logistical problem of only having a 5 gallon kettle and instead of doing the boil with everything in 2 or 3 gallons then adding water to the fermenter later and mixing the wort with the water, I decided to cut everything in half and do two half batches.
I did two batches of 3 gallons of water with half the grain steeped for 30 minutes, followed by boiling for an hour and adding half the hops for each batch. The first batch I dumped into my bucket and kept in my fermentation chamber until the second batch was done, then I pitched my starter (dumped the whole thing in).
Another problem that I ran into is that the lid on my bucket does not fit. No matter how hard I try, I can't get that thing to snap into place. So I just placed it on as best I could and put an airlock with vodka on and put the whole thing into my fermentation chamber (STC-1000 temp controlled fridge).
So this morning I woke up and the airlock is not bubbling but there appears to be a nice head of krausen on the top of the wort. I dunno if it's not bubbling because the bucket is not air tight or because of lag time or what.
What do you guys think? Am I screwed?
Two-days ago I made my yeast starter. I didn't have any extra DME except for what was in the kit for the recipe I had bought, so I went to my LHBS and bought a pound of light DME for the starter. Everything with the starter went relatively well. I had white labs WLP001 which sprayed everywhere when I cracked it to pitch in the starter, but I managed to dump what I could in the flask and it seemed to end up working fine (admittedly I was a little freaked out about it but I came on here in researched and read several threads where the same thing happened to other people). I got a great head of krausen and 18 hours later (yesterday) I was starting my brew.
The recipe:
American Pale Ale 2
6 lbs Coopers Light DME
1 Lb Belgian Caravienne (19-27L)
7 AAU Nugget (Boil) (0.52oz @ 13.3%)
2 Oz. Chinook (Finish)
White Labs WLP001
(Steep Grains in bag in 6 gallons of water @ 155F for 20 minutes, remove bag (drain) then bring to boil, add Nugget hops and boil for an hour. After an hour add chinook and cool.)
So I had a couple beers before I started, and perhaps my judgement was a little off but I had the logistical problem of only having a 5 gallon kettle and instead of doing the boil with everything in 2 or 3 gallons then adding water to the fermenter later and mixing the wort with the water, I decided to cut everything in half and do two half batches.
I did two batches of 3 gallons of water with half the grain steeped for 30 minutes, followed by boiling for an hour and adding half the hops for each batch. The first batch I dumped into my bucket and kept in my fermentation chamber until the second batch was done, then I pitched my starter (dumped the whole thing in).
Another problem that I ran into is that the lid on my bucket does not fit. No matter how hard I try, I can't get that thing to snap into place. So I just placed it on as best I could and put an airlock with vodka on and put the whole thing into my fermentation chamber (STC-1000 temp controlled fridge).
So this morning I woke up and the airlock is not bubbling but there appears to be a nice head of krausen on the top of the wort. I dunno if it's not bubbling because the bucket is not air tight or because of lag time or what.
What do you guys think? Am I screwed?
